It will be the second straight start out front at Pocono for Johnson, who also started out front in June after qualifying was rained out, but he earned the top spot this time around.

Because the left rear toe on Johnson's car was off by one thousandth of an inch on the laser platform inspection system, he was forced to go through the process a second time. Put on the five-minute clock to get on the track, Johnson's team pushed the No. 48 Chevrolet on to pit road just in time to get on the 2.5-mile tri-oval. By the end of his lap, Johnson beat Joey Logano's track record and shot to the top of the speed charts.

"With this system it's pass, fail, but it was one thousandth of an inch," Johnson said. "Then we got put on the clock, which is always a scary thing, but we got it sorted out."

Kyle Busch went out early and laid down what he thought was a tough lap to beat.

Busch, who has struggled at Pocono, but did finish sixth in the spring, was the first of six drivers to break Logano's record lap set last June. Kurt Busch, who was quickest in Friday's practice, and Newman failed to jump to the start of the speed chart before Johnson finally knocked him out of the top spot.

"It was about all I could get," Busch said. "If I had to do it all over again I could probably get more, but I wish it was the pole. Certainly that's what you'd like to have and to come in and be so close, just four thousandths of a second off, it would have been nice to start first and get the number one pit selection, but we'll take it."

Busch's disappointment turned to accusations against Johnson's team.

Going out 20 cars after Busch, when temperatures had cooled and clouds had rolled in, certainly helped Johnson, but that wasn't all that aided the five-time Cup champion.

"A lot of these other teams have figured out how to play by the rules," Busch said. "And then there's one that's sometimes late and quite often more than the rest."

Busch's comment surprised Johnson.

"There's no master plan behind it all," Johnson said. "They're welcome to try it and experience the stress that goes with it. My heart was pounding out of my chest."

Edwards, a two-time winner at Pocono with the last one coming in August 2008, picked up almost 1.1 seconds from his practice speed to earn a spot in the second row.

"We didn't expect to pick up that much time so that was a really nice surprise," Edwards said.

Johnson made gains in qualifying, too.

The current points leader ran a lap of 51.154 seconds in practice, good for 16th quickest. By the time qualifying rolled around, and Johnson finally got on the track, he gained more than 1.3 seconds to set the track record.

"Track records are cool," Johnson said. "I think that would make any driver smile and to get one here is really, really cool. I knew it was fast, but I just didn't know how fast. I challenged the car and it stuck in the corners and in some ways I thought I could have gone faster."